Broken Wing Chapter 4: The Darkest Day, The Brightest Night, a storm hawks fanfic

Broken Wing

Black Light of the Shadow Crystal, Birth of the New Scion!

Part 2: The Darkest Day, The Brightest Night!

AN: Hello and welcome to part two of Kai's origin miniseries. There will be three parts total, so just one more chapter to go. I didn't know whether to make these a part of Broken Wing, or a stand alone series in of itself, but I decided to make it part of BW so that people that read future chapters will be able to understand some things. I hope that it isn't too bad, and I hope that I have improved since I started this story. Now I know the name is a bit of a cliché, but it is really important. This chapter will explain several statements of Master Cyclonis throughout the series. Through cryptic, she has said more about the world of Atmos then any other person in the series. Watching the first ten episodes with pen and paper in hand, I was able to get quite a bit of information out of her. Please enjoy what I hope to be my greatest chapter yet.

Disclaimer: I do not own Storm Hawks, and never will. They are the property of Asaph "Ace" Fipke and made by Nerd Corps Entertainment, however I DO own Kai, the Shadow crystal and this story.

"Speech"

"Thought"

Kai sped through the city at full throttle, ducking and weaving through the city's maze like streets dodging walls by mere inches. He could see several talons above him, they were circling like vultures. He was silently thankful the city had stone roads, or else his dust trail would have been seen a mile away. Every so often he would have to stop to avoid a passing patrol. Ha had noticed though that every time he would stop to wait, he would catch sight of the strange woman that had led him to the city, but he was never able to get a good look at her. At first he thought she was running from him, but after awhile he realized that she wasn't running from him, rather, she was leading him.

"I just hope it isn't a trap. No normal person can even keep up with a skimmer, much less outrun it. I've got a bad feeling about this." Kai came to another stop when a group of six skimmers passed directly overhead. Kai froze, and sat perfectly still, hoping that he hadn't been seen. This of course was not to happen. The six turned around and opened fire.

"I have to do something fast, if they call for help I'm screwed!" Looking around for something that would help him, anything at all. He spied a large statue to his left. The statue was one of quite a few he had seen. All of then the same, each was a large dragon standing behind a person. And while each statue had a different person, the dragon was the same in each of them. Its claws were wrapped around the persons shoulders, wings spread out wide to the air, and the tail lay in a circle around the person's feet. But what gave him the hebe jebe's was the dragons head. The great long neck would be lowered to the level of the persons head, and the dragons eyes would be beside the person's. Thinking quickly Kai brought up the Red Tails energy cannon and fired at the feet of the statue. That's when something amazing happened.

The cannon shot stopped less than an inch from the statue. For a brief second it flashed a cobalt blue color. The dragons head then turned and look up to the sky, towards the incoming skimmers and left lose a barrage of black flames. At first Kai was horrified, believing that he had just inadvertently killed five men. Talons or not, he had no desire to kill them; he just wanted them out of his hair for awhile. But when the flames died down, he was able to see the skimmers still completely intact, their pilots however were in bad shape. Though not burned or scarred in any way, Kai noticed that their flying became erratic. They started firing randomly into the air in every direction. One of the men even jumped from his skimmer to the ground, landing in a large fountain of water. But the one thing they all had in common was that they were screaming in terror. Not even pausing to give the matter a second thought, Kai floored the skimmer to full speed.

"What on Atmos was that?! This place is rigged with traps! Duh idiot, if it was built by the Ancients then it's bound to be dangerous. I need to get inside that temple and fast." He then saw the strange woman yet again. But instead of running from him, she looked like she was waiting for him. She was standing between two of the many statues that ran along the city's roads, but before he could call out to her she turned around and walked between them. A second later there was a blue flash, and she vanished.

"Now what! I've been following a ghost all this time! Wait a minute; she was waiting for me at that spot. She wanted me to see her walk between those two statues, just like she wanted me to see what streets she was walking down. I hope I'm right, cause this would be a sucky time to be wrong." Kai floored the Red Streak and ran directly between the two statues. Sure enough there was a blue flash of light.

The next thing Kai could see was a wall directly ahead of him; slamming the breaks he stopped barely an inch from hitting it. Looking behind him, Kai saw another wall. Not an open street in a large city. "I knew it! This was a trap! Looking for a way out, Kai could see that three of the walls were rather close; the fourth however was nowhere to be seen. So he cut on the skimmers high beams and continued down the corridor. After a few minutes, he noticed that the walls were covered in odd carvings. Stopping to get a better look, he was able to see a large image of what appeared to be a map, but he didn't recognize any of the terra it was depicting. Stepping back to get a better look he counted five Terra's in all. Each of which were huge, larger then anything he had ever seen before. He then noticed that some of them looked like they were connected. Two of them on the left of the map were connected by what looked like a wedge of land jutting out of the top one. Two of the others, the largest by far, seemed to be connected by a land mass larger then any terra ever recorded. The smaller was under the larger, and connected by its upper right side. Only one of the Terra's seemed to be off on its own, the smallest. Continuing his way Kai saw many strange images. City's that spanned for what looked like miles and miles, buildings that were hundreds of feet tall. He could see strange vessels that seemed to fly, but had no wings or thrusters. He thought it was strange that they had what looked like bed sheets running from the deck up a large pole in the center of the ship.

"I don't have time to sight see." Kai continued down the hall until it came to a drop. Stopping he dismounted and was about to drop a glow stick to see how far down the floor was, when the room was lit up by a thousand torches. Quickly he dropped down to his stomach. He was glad too, for a few seconds later a large number of talons entered the room, followed by the Dark Ace, the young girl, and finally several cages, each Kai could see, holding one of the Interceptors, all of them were still unconscious.

"Great, things just went from bad to worse. What is going on here, who was that woman? And why did she lead me to this place." Looking around Kai was able to tell very quickly that this was the inner sanctum of the temple, the place where only the highest of priest and priestess would be allowed to enter. The walls were littered with more carvings, all of which depicted a large dragon. But these were different. Unlike the statues these were colored. Kai could see that the dragon had dark black scales, and its eyes were a dark blue color. He also noticed that, in each of the pictures the dragon seemed to be fighting something. In some of them it was another dragon, quite a few of them depicted it fighting army's, and even one showed it fighting a phoenix. It was becoming increasingly easy for Kai to figure out what it was. "This beast, this dragon must have been the city's protector. That's why there were all those statues and carvings of it. It must have protected the people of this city. But what happened? I've read rumors that dragons have been sighted every now and then, but I always thought it was just a bunch of drunken sailor talk. They really must have existed at one time." Looking up again Kai could see the talons were spreading around through the room. Each carried a search light and were shining it along the walls or ceiling. "Snap! Did they hear me or see me?!"

"I want it found. We must have the key to enter the final chamber. But alert me as soon as you find it, DO NOT TOUCH IT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!" The small girl bellowed.

"Your highness, there is no guarantee that what you seek even exist. And even if it did at one time, there is a good chance that it was looted by now." The Dark Ace responded in his usual calm tone.

"You saw the number of talons that we lost just getting to this room? None of those traps had been activated until today. I doubt that anyone would have been able to get through all of them without setting off a single one, much less reach the chamber of light and remove the stone without dieing." The small girl replied.

"Ok that girl, I seriously don't like. She talks about losing soldiers like someone would a coin. How can anyone so young be that heartless?!" In the back of his mind though, the comment about making it through all the traps did raise his interest, after all he had made it inside without a scratch, and from here he could see that even the Dark Ace had taken a rather nasty slice to his left arm. It was bandaged, but the angry red seeping through told Kai the cut was deep. "There's a good chance that it sliced clean to the bone. If that were the case, the muscles might never heal." His train of thought was broken by a sudden outcry.

"Hey! I found it!" All the room's occupants turned towards the talon that had called out. He was standing in the middle of the room, his search light pointing straight up at the ceiling.

Craning his neck Kai was able to get a good look at what the man was pointing to. It was a good distance away, but it looked like a dragon's claw sticking out of the ceiling and pointing downwards.

"Fancy that, I guess my little gift to you will prove useful after all. Dark Ace, I need for you to give me a boost." The small girl said as she turned towards the older man.

"Of course your highness." The Dark Ace walked foward until he was under what the young girl had called "the key" and waited for a moment. The small girl threw off the robe she had been warring, revealing a leather padded combat suit. She quickly walked up to the man and turned away from him.

"I know the Dark Ace is strong, but I don't think that is in a physical sense, and I doubt she can reach that thingby standing on his shoulders, and I know that he can't throw her that far. What are they planning?" Kai's question was answered when seconds later wings sprouted from the man's back and a booster rocket fired, lifting the two towards the ceiling. A few seconds later they were hovering directly below it. The young girl reaching up and grabbing two of the claws and pulling as hard as she could.

"Your highness, I can't sustain flight for much longer, let go. We can return with the proper equipment to handle this. We have found it, it's not going anywhere." The man said as the rocket on his back begins to sputter.

The small girl cut him a scathing glare. When his rocket ran out she kicked him in the face so that he let go of her. "I will handle this on my own then." The man's face showed shock. He quickly rolled over and glided to the floor below.

As soon as he landed he looked around for the young girl, only to see her nowhere. "Your highness! Where are you?!" He looked around franticly.

"I'm still up here you oaf!" Looking up the group could see the small girl dangling from the ceiling. "Wait a second! I think I figured it out!" The girl pulled her tiny form into a ball, curling her legs up until her feet rested on the ceiling. Then she stopped pulling, and turned the claw.

"AHH!"

She dropped about six inches from the ceiling before stopping. The Dark Ace looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

"DON'T YOU DARE FALL!" He bellowed out. The small girl looked at the ground.

"I won't. Not when I'm this close." Swinging her legs a few times, she swung them up to the ceiling and again placed her feet on the marble tiles. "It won't budge! I think it's stuck!" She called down.

The Dark Ace let his gaze fall to the ground for a second before returning it to the girl's small form. "Try turning it in the opposite direction! It might be like a combination lock!" He shouted.

"AHH!"

The girl dropped a little farther this time, and the Dark Ace grew a few more grey hairs. "It worked! But it still won't come down. I think there are a few more turns left in this thing!" Swinging her legs back up to the ceiling she turned it back the other way. "AHH!" This time it dropped a considerable distance before stopping. The small girl was painting trying to catch her breath.

Kai meanwhile was watching with only mild interest, he was more worried about whatever this group had come for, and how he was going to help his friends. There had to be at least twenty talons in the room, including the Dark Ace. He might have been a match for two or three, but he was no match for Dark Ace, even if the man was injured. He doubted that the Interceptors together could do anything. So Kai did the only thing he could, wait and watch. "That little girl is impressive though, she must go through the same training regimen I do. She's in almost as good shape as I am, and she's what ten? She's going to be trouble, I know it."

The small girl was now facing a problem. After three rotations, the "key" was now hanging a little more than four feet from the ceiling. The problem was that she was only four feet tall, and could no longer reach the ceiling with her legs to turn the thing.

"Ace! We have a slight problem! I'm open to any suggestions!" She called out.

Thinking for a second the man turned up to look at the girl. "Can you pull yourself up the pole? He called out.

The small girl hung there limp for a second before answering. "I think so! Why?"

"If you can pull yourself up, then you can use your hands the way you have been using your feet. But make sure you are holding tight with your legs! That thing seems to drop fast, and you don't have a glider in case you fall!" He shouted to small girl.

Kai watched as she reached up with one hand and grabbed higher up on the pole. She then reached up with her other hand. As soon as she was a little more than half way up she wrapped her thighs and legs around the pole. Then reaching up with her hands she pushed herself around until it dropped again.

"AHH!"

The small girl was starting to shake, but Kai could hardly blame her, he would be a mess right now if he tried to do what she was doing. After repositioning herself she turned it again, dropping further. But this time there was no squeal or squeak; she just shimmied up higher on the pole and twisted it in the opposite direction.

For a second, a look flashed across the Dark Aces face, a look the Kai had seen on a few rare occasion from Starling.

It was pride.

"He must be her instructor. Even from up here I can see how proud he is of her. I wonder if it's like that with all teachers."

Click

The floor began to tremble, and most of the talons were falling to the ground. After a few seconds a round platform rose from the floor up to where the young girl was hanging. For a brief second Kai thought that she must have activated a trap. But he noticed that it stopped a few feet below where she was hanging. A few seconds later it lowered to the ground, and there, standing with what appeared to be a seven foot long staff was the little girl. The Dark Ace rushed to where she was standing.

But before he could speak she turned towards the back of the room. Lifting the staff she pointed it towards the wall, and a beam of black light fired from its tip. The wall shimmered for a brief second before disappearing completely. The small girl stepped forward and walked through the new doorway, but as the men tried to follow her, they were stopped by a wall of black energy. This surprised even her and prompted her to hit the wall several times with the staff before the Dark Ace stopped her.

"We cannot follow you any further your highness! The barrier must only allow one person to enter. You will have to find another way out!" He yelled. She nodded before heading deeper into the temple.

Kai looked around, trying to see how he could get past the barrier; he could see no way to get past it. It was then that he felt two arms wrap around him from behind, and a second later everything went white. When the flash died down Kai found himself in a dark room with no light, but he could make out the sound of approaching footsteps. A few seconds later the room was lit with torches that covered the walls; there standing at the door way was the small girl. Who thankfully, didn't see him; she was preoccupied reading something along the wall.

"The dragons nest huh? I expected it to be more than this." She placed the tip of the staff into a hole in the wall and turned it several times. Moments later the room went completely black, and rumbling could be heard.

When Kai was able to stand again, he could see that a doorway had appeared in one of the walls leading to yet another chamber. But two things caught his attention. One was the eerie purplish lights coming from the room. The second was the loud thumping sound that filled his ears.

Thump Thump

"If I didn't know any better, I would say that was a heartbeat. But what on Atmos could have a heartbeat that loud?" Kai was about to step forward when he remembered something. "She was trained by the Dark Ace, and has a staff that can fire projectile attacks. I need something more than just my body if I'm going to fight her." Looking around, Kai saw that the Red Streak had been warped to the room as well. He quickly pulled off the two wing mounted shields and put his arms through the leather strips. "It's not much, but it's better than nothing." Kai then ran towards the room.

When he arrived he nearly fell flat on his face. The room, was in a word, huge. It could easily hold a carrier, Kai was sure that a pair of aces could have a decent dogfight in it with little trouble. But the beating sound was so loud that it hurt. Looking around he could see the girl was walking towards a large engraving. It covered the entire wall, and seemed to absorb any light that was in the room. The carving was the black dragon. But in the center of the carving was a black crystal, slightly smaller than average. But what really caught his attention was how it seemed to pulsate with a purplish grey light.

Thump Thump

The sound was deafening, he didn't just hear it, he could actually feel it. That's when things went bad. He could see the girl pull out a crystal from a small pouch on her side, and place it onto the end of the staff. When it touched, the top three claws closed into a vice grip around the stone.

"Today will mark the rebirth of Cyclonia, the fall of the Sky Knights, and, my rise to power." She then trusted the staff at the black crystal, firing a beam of white light. As soon as it struck the crystal, the rooms natural light went from purplish black to a dark crimson color. The sound of the hearts beats grew faster, almost frantic, and the girl herself seemed to glow with a dark purple aura.

Out of the corner of his eye Kai once again saw movement. It was the woman he had followed. He could see that she was in pain, but he couldn't even reach her. She seemed to be inside the wall itself. Then she looked up, and for the first time, Kai could see her eyes. They were a dull gold color, and the pupils looked almost like they were slits. She seemed to be mouthing something. He couldn't understand the words, but the pain on her face made it clear.

Stop her!

Rushing forwards Kai slammed one of his two shields into the girls back knocking her to the ground and forcing her to drop her staff.

She quickly scrambled up and retrieved her weapon. "How dare you! You think you can stop me you trash!" The girl began attacking wildly with the clawed staff. Kai ducked and weaved around the strikes as best he could, and managed to block the ones that he couldn't.

"This girls amazing! It's exactly like fighting Starling, but how can she be this good. Even if the Dark Ace is her mentor, there is no way that her body should be able to fight this well, she's too young!" Blocking a particularly nasty overhead smash knocked Kai to the ground with such force he dropped one of his shields. He quickly rolled backwards to put some distance between them before getting to his feet to dodge the crystal fire she sent his way. "Great she must have armed that thing on the way down." Kai had no choice but to block the next shot and hope that the shield would hold.

The blast hit home, and Kai was thrown from the ground into the wall. The shield he had been using was reduced to hundreds of pieces of shrapnel.

"This is the end for you pest." Holding the staff back she fired another shot.

"Looks like this is it." Kai had climbed to his feet just before the shot fired. He was surprised however when the girls face slipped from a grin to a fearful expression.

"Don't you dare touch that!" She screamed.

Not knowing what the girl was screaming about Kai felt his back touch something, something hard. Turning he saw that he was standing in front of the black colored crystal. "What have I got to lose?" Right before the blast hit him, his fingers touched the crystal.

Opening his eyes, Kai was surprised to find himself still standing, and, apparently, still in one piece. Turning around he saw an angry glowing red orb less than a foot from his face.

"Whoa!" When Kai turned to see the crystal, he saw something even stranger. His hand, still over the spot where the crystal once was. Not just his hand, but his entire body was still there. Looking down he noticed that his hands were slightly translucent. "What is going on here?"

"That is a very good question child."

Kai heard a loud booming voice, but couldn't tell where it had come from. Looking around he noticed that the crystal was no longer in the wall.

"Who are you? And why have you trespassed into my domain?" The voice boomed.

"My name is Kai, and I had no intention of trespassing." He called out.

"Is that why you have been snooping around my territory for the last day? Because you had no intention of trespassing? What else would you call it?" The voice was beginning to sound more than just a little agitated.

"We didn't know this Terra was your territory. We came to investigate it to see if it was suitable for colonization. I only just found the city's ruins an hour ago." Kai was cut off.

"Ruins! What ruins? And what is this Terra you speak of?" The voice thundered.

Boom

Turning around slowly, Kai saw the huge carving on the wall, was no longer a carving. It was real. Kai was now staring at a real life, honest to God, dragon.

The great beast reared its head back for a moment before leaning forward. Its snout resting just a few inches from his face.

"I will not repeat myself again child. What ruins do you speak of?" All Kai could focus on were the dragons large teeth. But he was determined to answer the beasts question as best he could.

"The ruins that surround this temple. I had just found them a few hours ago, and I didn't even find them, I was led to them by some woman." At the mention of the woman Kai ran to the wall he had seen her inside of. Sure enough there she was lying on the floor gasping for breath.

"Hey are you alright?" Rolling the woman over so he could see her face, Kai was shocked to see that she now looked much, much older than when he had first seen her.

Her tired golden eyes opened and saw Kai's face for just a moment before closing. A second later her body turned to black crystal shards and shattered into dust.

Boom

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY SCION?!" The dragon's voice boomed.

Kai, startled out of his stupor by the booming voice, tried his best to speak. "I didn't do anything! She led me here! She guided me through the city, she warped me twice! I didn't do anything but follow her! I swear!" If anyone asked, Kai would tell them at that moment he was scared witless, but the truth was that he was so far beyond scared that there wasn't even a word for it.

The dragon lowered its head to Kai's level, and then, something happened. He didn't even know what it was. One second he thought the dragon was going to eat him, or torch, then eat him. The next moment the dragons gone and the entire room was filled with a thick blanket of black fog.

"WHATS GOING ON!" Kai tried to run, but he felt arms holding onto his legs, he tried to pull free, but his arms wouldn't budge. "This stinks, of all the ways to go. Why couldn't I have just have let the little girl blast me? It would have been more dignified then suffocating because some dragon thought I killed its scion, whatever that is."

After a few moments the fog started to pull away from his body, he could feel the hold on his arms and legs loosen enough that he could run. But as he watched the fog began to circle faster and faster, condensing into a single small point. And then it just vanished. Stepping through where the fog had been was a familiar person.

"Star!" Kai began running towards her but before he reached her he felt the same heaviness as he had earlyer. "You've got to help me out! There's this dragon in here, he's trying to kill me!" Before he continued however, Kai noticed that something was wrong.

"You're not Starling." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"That is correct child. And I should correct you on another matter, the dragon is not a "he" rather it is a "she", and lastly she, happens to be me." The voice sounded the same, the face and body looked the same, but the hair was several shades darker, and the eyes were a dark blue, rather than the familiar shade of forest green. "Now that I have seen your memories, I believe you. It seems that, things have changed a great deal since I last was awoken." Her face then scrunched. "And it appears that my powers have diminished quite a bit as well."

"Ok I'm glad you're not going to kill me, but I don't have time to stick around. There's this crazy girl trying to kill me and I need to get out of the way…err I need to get my body out of the way…. Where exactly are we?"

The pseudo Starling let out a dry chuckle. "Your mind is in the domain of my crystal. Do not fear the girl, time does not move in this place. However, I never said that I wouldn't kill you." She was now flashing a dangerous grin.

"What are you talking about? Why would you kill me? I've done nothing wrong!" Kai was scared, he knew that even though it might have looked like his friend, he would stand even less of a chance against this dragon then he would have against the real Starling.

"Simple. I find myself needing a scion. My previous one has died, and you're the only one here that can fill in that role." The dragon strode its way over to Kai, who was still unable to even move, no matter how much he wanted to.

"But, but what if I don't want to?" He asked as quickly as he could.

The dragon stopped dead in its tracks. "That has never happened before. To become a dragon's scion is one of the greatest privileges a mortal can have. Besides I don't think you want to turn this offer down." The dragon said, now with a smug grin plastered on Starlings face.

"Oh and why not?" Kai tried to summon all his courage, but quickly found that there was none left for him to summon. He could almost hear the dial tone saying that the line had been disconnected, and to try his call again later.

"Because, if I eject your mind back into your body as it is now, you will have zero chance of dodging the blast that's about to remove your head. Also, you will have no chance of saving you friends." The dragons grin just got larger and larger.

"Fine. I'll do it, but tell me, who are you?" Kai asked looking up into the dragons face.

The dragon closed its eyes for a moment. "I have no name; I never have, and never will. I have been around for thousands of years, before the world became what it is now."

At this Kai quirked an eyebrow, causing the dragon to laugh.

"Many many years ago, the world was a much different place. There were no terras; rather, they were called continents, and they covered what you call the wastelands. Also, most of the planet was covered with water. That all changed when humans discovered the potential power of crystals."

"What do you mean? What changed?" Kai asked not liking where this was going.

At this the dragon sighed. "Humans have been at war for countless centuries, but they were always limited by the resources that were available at the time. They depended on the fossilized remains of long dead creatures to burn as fuel, but when they discovered the potent, and unlimited power that crystals provided. Things changed. Where they were once able to destroy cities, they could now destroy entire land masses with ease. Every nation was rushing to develop its own supper weapons, in order to scare the others from attacking. And then it happened."

Kai felt a lead weight drop in his stomach. "What happened?"

"Someone blinked. Nobody knows who fired first, but one by one they went off, each breaking up the planet a little more each. Those weapons are responsible for what you call the world of Atmos, the kingdom of a thousand mountains."

"What did these weapons do? I mean, how could something be capable of destroying an entire landmass?"

The dragon gave a rueful smile. "You would be surprised at what you humans are capable of when you put your minds to it.

Flashback to roughly four thousand years ago

"It has begun. The end of our world as we know it." The great black dragon watched from inside its crystal. Watching as a thousand points of light rained down upon the planet's surface, breaking up the crust itself. This was the first, and only time that the great beast could remember in its life time, that the night sky had become brighter than it ever had during the day.

"What will happen?" A young woman asked. She, like several others were inside the domain of the crystal, and thus spared from the harsh conditions that rocked the world.

Looking down the dragon could only shake its head. "I don't know. All we can do is watch, wait, and see."

Flashback end

"It was the darkest day in the history of man; the entire planet was falling apart." The dragon breathed in deeply, trying to remember more, but was unable.

"What happened?" Kai asked. Trying to keep himself together. Finding out your entire world is the byproduct of a colossal war has that effect on a person.

"I don't remember….It's like….there are gaps in my memory. Something is wrong; my powers are too greatly diminished for it to merely be the passage of time. What happened when you arrived here, just before you touched the crystal?" The dragon that was still in the form of Starling asked.

"I don't know. When I arrived she was firing some kind of white beam at your crystal. Then I smacked her, we fought, and now I'm here." Kai answered.

After thinking for what seemed a few minutes the dragons eyes widened. "She must be using a Siphoning crystal. They were extremely rare in my time, but now, that must be the last one in existence."

"What do you mean last one? Can't another one be made?" Kai had heard of unique crystals before, but now that he had learned a little bit about the past, he also was starting to form a few theories about what those crystals were.

"It would have been possible back in my time, but you do not have the technology required to make them anymore. Some of those crystals and machines required elements and minerals that no longer exist in order to be made. Plus I doubt that anyone alive has the knowledge to use a Soul crystal anymore form them to be of any use." The dragon said.

"Soul crystals? What are those?" Kai asked confused.

"You know of several, but by different names. The Aurora stone, Oracle stone and my crystal were all at one time Soul crystals. They were used to trap powerful beings so that they could be used for energy, or to prevent them from harming people. But they have not been made, or used since four thousand years before the Great War."

Kai looked at the dragon for a moment before asking one last question. "What would happen if I were to become your scion?"

The dragon turned and smiled at the boy. "You would be given access to a portion of my powers, and memories, those that remain that is. You will also become slightly stronger, faster; your senses would become sharper. All around you would become a stronger and better fighter."

"So what's the catch? I know there must be a down side to this, no way it's free." Kai said crossing his arms.

"You are correct. To become a dragons scion, is to become a guardian of the living, the dead will no longer be of your concern. Also you will have to deal with the mentality of a dragon, keep that in mind." When she said this she noticed the boy's confused face. "It means you will have certain tendencies you will need to be mindful of. A shorter, and much more intense temper, a loner type personality, eagerness to fight, that sort of thing. Not so different from the species you call Raptors." The dragon explained.

"What do I have to do? Beat you in a fight or something?" Kai asked feeling a sense of dread.

"No nothing like that, if it had been, then I never would have had a single scion. Make no mistake, I might be in the form of your friend, but I am just as strong in this form as my true one. To pass, I merely need to take a little peak in your head and see what makes you tick." The dragon began to advance on Kai's form.

"I thought you already looked at my memories. Why would you need to see them again?" Kai was more than a bit nervous. He didn't like the thought of anyone poking around in his mind, much less twice.

"Yes, I did look at your memories. I have seen what you have done in your life child. But I did not look to see your motives or the reasons for your actions. I need to see why you do the things you do, not just what you do. If your intentions are noble then you shall become my next scion."

"And if they are not exactly noble?" Kai was pretty sure that his reasons were noble, but he wanted to know just in case.

"If they are not, then you shall become my next…meal." At the word meal she snapped her jaws for added affect.

Gulp

"I promise this will not hurt a bit, unless, well, you know." The dragon reached up a single hand and placed it on the side of Kai's face.

A few moments later the dragon retracted her hand. "Well, your reason is noble, not quite as broad as I would have hoped, but given what is happening outside of this realm however I'll give you a few extra points."

"You were grading me?" Kai didn't know if he should feel relieved or insulted.

"As I said, your reason is noble, but I would prefer it to be a bit wider spread then focused on a single individual." "He was protective before. May the egg have mercy on anyone he feels to be a threat now." Shaking her head the dragon took a step back. "Two things you need to be aware of, the first is that the young girl you are fighting has absorbed nearly three fourths of my power. She will be much stronger then you, so you will not be able to defeat her in a straight up fight."

"Is there any way to take back your power?" Doing the math, Kai didn't like the prospect of fighting someone that was not only three times stronger than himself; but someone who was also apparently better trained, and finally, unlike himself, was actually armed.

"I am afraid not. A siphon crystal drains other crystals in the same manner as what you call lechers. While some crystals like a Solaris or Lunar can be recharged, a Soul crystal cannot. You will have to make do with one forth of my power." The dragon seemed only slightly dejected over the permanent loss of so much power. Kai couldn't but help but wonder why.

"Why aren't you like, really mad? If I were in your shoes I'd be royally ticked off."

"Oh I am angry. But I am also several thousand years old. I realized a long time ago that I have no choice but to accept what I am. My powers have been waning for quite some time, but there is nothing that can be done about it. This too is something you too must learn. Sometimes things happen, things you have no control over, and can do nothing to about. Other times, you must allow things to happen, even if they hurt you. But enough talk, you need to fight boy! Oh and one last thing you need to know." The dragon grinned as she pushed Kai backwards to his body.

"DUCK!"

The second that he had regained control over his body, that was exactly what he did, and not a moment too soon. Directly where his head once was, a nasty black scorch mark now resided.

"How did you dodge that?" The small girl seemed shocked.

Kai turned to look at the young girl and grinned. When his eyes opened, she knew instantly that something had changed. She was unsure what color the boy's eyes had been, but she was sure that they were not a dull gold color.

"What? That? Oh that was easy. Fighting you on the other hand? Is going to be fun."

AN: So what did you think? I wanted to come up with a plausible reason for how Master Cyclonis got all those cool abilities of hers. No other person in the series has shown the ability to fly without wings or crystals other than her, also there's the black glowie thingie that she does, and the layered voice she has whenever she gets seriously peeved. Then add to that she has the power to change the structure and type of a crystal, and the power to stop small attacks with little effort, and even shield herself from larger ones like Aerrows Lightning Claw no problem. The big thing though, is the storm engine from the first and second episodes. She remarked that "Storms created the Terra's, and storms would wipe them clean." She also called the machine a storm engine; she didn't name it like she did the enhancer crystals. So that leads me to believe that at least one had existed at some point in time before, she just built another one. Now for those of you that might think that Kai is become sueish. Keep in mind, he is only a fourth as powerful as Master Cyclonis, she has everything he does and quite a bit more. As far as levels are concerned, Kai is around Aerrows level, but lacks any form of luck, and has no team to back him up. So his total effectiveness is roughly a fifth of the Storm Hawks. Not an uber by a long shot. As for the cruddy past, like I said earlier, this is a world at civil war. It's not pretty, and there are often times more than just a few casualties. The show to a degree makes light of that. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I have been thinking it up for quite awhile. The show has made a few hints that Atmos could indeed be Earth in the distant future. Personally I hope skimmers are around in my life time. It'd be a whole new type of fun. Till next time, Ja Ne!